The Glass Between Us
by HuaFeiHua
Summary: Armin goes down to talk to Annie, still trapped in her crystal cocoon.
_Inspired by Rachie's English cover of_ When First Love Ends. _
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 **Word Count:** 3,880

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Armin walked down a long, long flight of stairs. As he lightly ran his hand over the railing, he sighed and thought about his destination, a high-security dungeon deep underground. It held just one prisoner: a teenage girl named Annie, encased in crystal.

Annie had only been an acquaintance of his, just another cadet in the 104th trainees squad. They weren't close, but they'd known each other. Or at least, Armin though he knew her, he wasn't too sure anymore. Back when she was running loose as the female-form titan, she'd had the opportunity to violently kill him, as she'd done to many of his fellow corps members. But… she hadn't. She'd checked his face, and let him go.

And this is what confused everyone. Why would Annie, a vicious, near-sociopathic acquaintance choose to keep him alive? He wasn't valuable like Eren and Ymir. He wasn't skilled like Levi-Heichou. All he was was smart.

Since encasing herself in crystal, everyone had tried everything to get her out, but to no avail. So here he was, practically humanity's last hope at getting her out. The only known person Annie ever spared was heading down to a high-security dungeon to talk to a girl trapped in a rock.

Bloody brilliant.

Armin felt his legs go onto autopilot. Cycling down, down, down, he wondered how much farther he had to go. He knew it was deep underground, but he never could have imagined he'd be stuck running down stairs for more than twenty minutes and still not see the end of it.

Dim. Bright. Dim. Bright. The torches flickered in their holders.

Dim. Bright. Dim. Bright. Armin wondered why he even agreed to do this.

Dim. Bright. Dim. Bright. _"You just might be the key to this puzzle,"_ Erwin had told him. _"You might turn out to be more valuable than anyone else. Just talk to her. Can't be that hard for a handsome lad like you."_

Armin blushed at the memory. He couldn't fathom what Erwin had meant by that last part, and he certainly didn't want to consider the most likely implication, that he thought Armin had a crush on Annie at some point.

Finally, he spotted a bright and steady glow up ahead. It didn't flicker like the torchlight, so that meant it was the end of all these dreadful stairs. Armin cringed at the thought of waking up tomorrow. He'd have sore legs for sure.

Armin entered a hallway, lit by those luminescent crystals in the Reiss cavern. He couldn't fathom why they didn't change the torches in the stairwell, but he ignored that thought as he stepped up to the two Military Police members on guard.

"Excuse me, but I'm here to see Annie Leonhart? I… don't know my way around here, so would you be so kind as to show me to where she is?" He tentatively asked.

"Of course," one of them grunted, and stiffly shook himself out. He began to walk down the hall, turning at one of the offshoots. "Follow me, kid."

Obediently, Armin did so, not daring to say anything.

After a few minutes, the guard broke the silence. "So, why are you visiting? Was she your girlfriend?" He teased.

Armin felt his face grow warm. "No!" He exclaimed. "She… spared me when she was in her titan form. No one knows why, so Commander Erwin sent me down so I could talk to her."

The man laughed lightly. "Ah, Commander Eyebrows. Hopeless romantic, that man is. Don't worry, I know you're here strictly on orders," he added when he finally noticed Armin's blush.

The pair was silent again, leaving Armin to wrestle with his thoughts. Erwin, a romantic? Well, it would certainly explain the implications behind his final words to him, but he didn't want to think that this entire thing was set up to get him to date a sociopath in a rock.

That would be so ridiculous.

"Aye, we're here kiddo. Lemme just unlock the cell and let you in. The door won't lock unless you purposely do so, so if it closes, just remember you can open it again," the police guard told him, fishing a key from his pocket and undoing the padlock and chain around the bars of the cell. He then swung the door open to let Armin inside.

Armin entered the cell with an uneasy feeling.

"I'll just leave you to it then," the guard said, and left before Armin could object. Sure, he knew his way back, it was hard to forget something that happened in the last ten minutes, but he didn't want to be left alone with Annie, even if she was trapped in crystal.

Unsure of what to do, he picked up an old chair from the corner of the cell and put it down next to where Annie lay, then sat down. He was quiet for a few moments, then began to speak.

"So… Lovely weather we're having today, huh?" He joked. Annie didn't respond, as he expected, and the already halfhearted smile on his face slid right off.

"So, um, Annie," he softly said before mentally cursing himself for saying the word _so_ so much. "I was kind of sent down here to talk to you. Dunno how much good it's going to do, seeing as we don't even know if you can hear me. But, uh, you kept me alive, so they figured I must have some significance to you or your evil plans.

"Why did you keep me alive? I'm not important. I'm not strong. I'm just a useless, snivelling, nothing to you. Maybe everyone's right, and you do have _special plans_ for me," he mused, then continued.

"Haha, sorry about that. A lot of people keep joking that I was sent down here to seduce you or something, but I'm not interested in getting with a girl trapped in crystal." Armin suddenly felt tired, and he leaned forward, resting his upper half on the crystal on the floor.

He felt the icy crystal against his cheek, and he remembered something from a long time ago. He'd gone to the mountains with his grandfather once, and it had snowed during the night. He remembered pressing his nose against the cabin's glass windows and watching the flurries gently float down as the frost slowly melt away from his breath.

Armin was suddenly struck with a vision of a cabin; it was dusty and dilapidated. He looked down at his hands and counted his fingers, wondering if he was hallucinating, like Eren had been when in his titan form, during the Battle of Trost. Ten fingers, as there should be.

 _Weird_ , he thought.

He delicately tread over to a worn green couch with a window behind it, and then knelt on it facing said window. He watched flurries of snow float gently down as frost on the window panes slowly melted away from his breath.

Armin suddenly began to remember how he got here. He'd been in a dark place… a dungeon cell, then he was just… here. There was nothing before that, and what he did recall was fading fast. He struggled to remember the area he was in. He knew he'd been there before, unless the unsettling familiarity of the place was just déjà vu, but he couldn't place where he'd seen it for the life of him at the moment.

Now frightened, he began reciting all he knew. _My name is Armin Arlert. I come from Shiganshina, in the southern district of Wall Maria. I am a member of the Survey Corps. My best friends are… are…_ Now that was scary. He vaguely remembered two faces, an angry looking boy with wild, dark brown hair and mossy green eyes, and a girl with raven hair and a crimson scarf, but there were no names attached to them. Even now, the details were leaving him.

In a panic, he repeated everything he knew about himself. _My name is Armin Arlert. I come from Shiganshina of the southern districts. I am a member of the Survey Corps._

 _My name is Armin Arlert. I come from Shiganshina of the southern districts. I am a member of the military._

 _My name is Armin Arlert. I come from the southern districts. I am a member of the military._

 _My name is Armin Arlert. I come from the southern districts. I am in the military._

 _My name is Armin A. I come from the south. I am in the military._

 _My name is Armin A. I am in the military._

"My name is Armin A…" he whispered aloud, reaching out to the frozen window in front of him, a silent tear running down his cheek. He couldn't even remember his own last name now. He rubbed the remaining frost away and saw a girl with sullen blue eyes and short blonde hair tied up in a bun. She was looking off to the side, hands in her pockets and shaking her head every time the snow piled up too high.

 _Annie_ , the name popped into his head, and a few memories came back to him. He was in a dungeon, talking to her. She was encased in crystal. He did not remember why.

"Annie!" He felt himself call out to her, but strangely enough, he couldn't hear it. The girl turned to face him. _She's pretty_ , he couldn't help but think.

More memories came back to him. He was outside, on a lovely summer's morning, riding a horse through a field. He wore a green cloak. But he only felt fear in the memory. There was no joy to be found in it.

He motioned for Annie to come closer to the window, and she obliged. She trudged through the snow and stopped in front of the window, giving him a gloomy look. "Hi," he said, still unable to hear himself.

"What do you want?" Armin couldn't hear her voice either, but he could read her lips.

"I… don't remember," he truthfully said, and a few more flashes returned. A female giant without skin was running after him as he urged his horse to gallop faster. A kick and tumbling. Blood in his eyes.

"Tch. Then why'd you call me over?" Annie spat. Armin thought he could finally hear something as she moved her lips, but it was very muffled.

"I was in a dungeon, talking to you, but you were stuck in a crystal."

This time, something flashed through Annie's eyes as they widened slightly. _Is she okay?_ Armin wondered.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she scoffed, her voice getting clearer.

"It's weird," Armin agreed, his own voice still muted. "One minute I was in a dank dungeon, next thing I know I'm in an old cabin. It's kind of familiar, though. And comforting," he wistfully continued. "What's it like outside?" He asked, and Annie froze up, a quick flash of fear showing.

"Did I say something wrong?" He worriedly said, and Annie shook the snow from her hair.

"It's nothing," the blonde girl insisted. "Just caught up in a memory."

"Would you like to come inside? It must be cold out there," Armin invited.

Annie looked longingly over his shoulder at the interior of the cabin. It was sparsely decorated, with an empty fireplace, but it wasn't snowing inside. "I can't," she finally told him, her voice bitter.

"Why not?"

Annie gently touched the glass window between them. "There's glass for a reason."

"But that's to keep the cold out, not people!"

Annie laughed.

 _She looks scary when she laughs_ , Armin thought, somewhat frightened.

"If you insist, Armin. If you insist," she giggled, and walked away from the window towards the door.

Armin got off the couch and ran towards the door as it shook. He twisted the doorknob and pulled, yanking it open and pulling Annie in with it, as she was still holding the knob on the other end.

Her eyes widened as she was thrown completely off balance and nearly to the floor. Quick as a whip, though, Armin reached out and grabbed her free hand, catching her in the nick of time.

The moment their hands touched, Armin was flooded with more memories. The female-form giant… no, titan… twirling a man around on metal cables, then letting him fly away. The terror he felt seeing its big blue eyes in his face and its short blonde hair barely touching his back as it lifted away his hood. Then the flashback stopped, and he was left clutching Annie's hand.

Their eyes met, and they were suddenly aware of their hand holding, and they both jerked their hands away. "Don't touch me ever again," Annie hissed, and

Armin could only gulp and nod.

A chilly breeze carried a few snowflakes inside, reminding Armin why he'd invited Annie inside in the first place. "Uh, you should sit down. I'll get the door," he chivalrously told her, motioning to the sagging couch near the window.

Annie grunted in response and plopped down as Armin clicked the door shut. She kicked her boots up on the dusty coffee table in front of her and leaned back as though she owned the place.

 _Rude, but I can deal with that_ , Armin thought. "What brings you out here, Annie?" He asked, carefully taking a seat by her side. "As I recall, we last saw each other in a dungeon. You were trapped in crystal. Have you got any idea what _that_ was all about?"

Anger flared in Annie's eyes. "No, no idea," she lied.

Armin sighed. "Pity," he replied, going along with her charade. "Maybe it would explain this memory I just got back when we were holding hands. There was a titan, and it had just killed… it might have been a comrade of mine, I don't remember; everything's fuzzy right now, but it decided to keep me alive."

"That's… very… odd…" she replied through gritted teeth. She took her feet down from the coffee table and sat up straighter.

Armin looked at her and said nothing. "Penny for your thoughts?" He found himself asking her. He had no idea what a penny was, but he'd heard the phrase at some point when he was young; he knew what it meant.

"Excuse me?" Annie snorted.

He sighed. "What are you thinking about?"

"I know what the phrase means, you dumbass. I just didn't think you'd have the gall to ask me. There, I told you. Now tell me your thoughts."

"I think you're really pretty," he blurted out. _Well, I fucked up. I fucked up, I fucked up._

Annie crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow. "Really now?"

What Armin said hadn't been a _lie_ , but it wasn't what he'd intended to say. Sure, he thought she was pretty, but that hadn't been on his mind at the time. He'd wanted to ask her about that female form titan, since he had a sneaking suspicion she had something to do with it, but what he said was what he said, he couldn't take back the truth.

He slowly nodded in response to Annie's question, fully aware of his growing blush.

She smiled ever so slightly and leaned uncomfortably close to his face. They were eye to eye, which Armin found odd. He was significantly taller than her, but there they were. He could hardly breathe, but when he did, he could smell her breath and hair, which smelled of carrot soup and generic soap, respectively. On their own, they weren't bad smells, but together, well, he wasn't sure how to feel.

They sat there in silence like that for what seemed like hours, just staring at each other's eyes. Armin slowly relaxed again.

Suddenly Annie lunged forward, their lips colliding. Armin almost pulled away from shock, but he was suddenly hit with wave after wave of vivid memories.

His friends. The boy with green eyes and wild brown hair, that was his best friend Eren. The girl with the scarlet scarf, raven hair, and inkpool eyes, that was his other best friend Mikasa. They were the first to reappear.

He remembered walls, tall, thick walls, and an enormous skinless titan breaking it down. _Bertholt_ , he remembered. _A fellow trainee…_

Boot camp. The grovelling work, the lack of sleep, and Eren's obsession of hand-to-hand combat with Annie. The friendships he forged with Marco, Jean, Connie, Sasha. Ymir and Christa, Nac and Thomas, Mina Carolina. Well, Christa was Queen Historia now. He remembered that next.

The Battle of Trost. The death of his comrades, and his survival speech after Eren's accidental transformation.

Dozens of memories flashed before his eyes. Some important, some not. But not one of them lasted for longer than half a second.

Then, a scene played out in front of him. It wasn't just a fleeting instant, it played out in front of him.

 _He was standing on a staircase leading underground. He was with Eren and Mikasa, urging Annie to follow them._

 _Then… Mikasa called her the female-form titan._

 _Annie smiled ever so slightly. Then she grinned and began laughing maniacally. Corps members, dressed as civilians, jumped in and began to restrain her. She cut herself on the finger with a ring, and exploded out as the female-form titan, throwing dozens of soldiers several feet in the air, if not incinerating them on the spot._

A flash forward. Eren was chasing Annie down, both of them in their titan forms. Buildings were destroyed, civilians ran in terror as he observed from the wall.

Another flash forward. Annie trapped herself in crystal as the daylight faded away, and was locked in a dungeon deep underground.

Flash forward a third time. He was walking down a long, long flight of stairs to Annie.

A final memory flash. Annie in her titan form purposefully not killing him.

Armin's visions suddenly ceased, and he found himself still on the receiving end of a kiss from Annie.

He immediately jerked away, repulsed. The cabin flickered before him, and the last thing he saw was a small smile on Annie's face before everything went black and he began to fall.

The feeling remained for but an instant, then it suddenly stopped. Armin vaguely heard a shatter and tinkle of glass as his eyes shot open and he instantly sat up. He was panicking, unsure of what was happening around him as he tried to collect his thoughts.

Before he could do that, however, he noticed that Annie was no longer in her crystal. It was shattered, with fragments littered all around him on the floor. In a blind panic, Armin lept up and tried to stumble away, but he tripped on the leg of the chair he'd been sitting on before all this happened.

He groaned. What the hell had just happened?

He lay there and collected his memories. The cabin in the snow, letting Annie in, and… the kiss. Had all that been real?

Armin felt a trickle of blood on his lip, and he licked it away. It tasted tangy and metallic, as it should, but then he tasted something else.

Carrot soup.

He groaned again and tried to bury his face in the stone floor. The vision, the dream, whatever it had been, had really happened. He'd been kissed by a serial killer formerly encased in stone.

He sighed, then got up and crawled towards Annie in order to take her pulse. May as well see if she was alive, right?

Faint, but it was there. Armin figured she was unconscious or in a light coma, if there _were_ such things as varying degrees of comas.

He then pondered his next move. He could go fetch the guard and get Annie chained up and prepped for torture and questioning. Or, he could talk to her and do what he was sent here for, and _then_ fetch the guard, get Annie chained up and prepped for torture.

He decided on the latter, wanting to at least have something to tell Commander Smith other than the events that had just transpired.

Armin got more comfortable beside Annie's barely breathing body.

"Uh, hey again, Annie," he said. "I'm not sure if you can remember what happened, but I do. I'll never know why you had to kiss me, but you're a mysterious person. I'm sure you had your reasons.

"Anyways, I'm here on a mission to talk to you. I think the reason was to get a reaction out of you. Well, looking at it, I think it's mission accomplished, but I don't really want to tell Commander Erwin I just said I was sleepy and then the crystal around you just exploded. I don't think he'd believe me.

"I guess to start off, I'll just say what I think of you. You used to be a good person to me. You helped Eren learn to fight, and you seemed genuinely concerned when there was a whole lot of us joining the Survey Corps. But then you killed dozens of soldiers, sparing only me. What the hell was that all about? I guess we'll find out eventually, now that you're out."

Armin found himself smiling sadly, then shook his head to clear it off. He had nothing else to say, but he decided to continue on a whim.

"I don't know how I feel about you now. Getting to know you like that, with no memories, that really fucked with my head. Another first impression, another set of memories before the originals came flooding back. Everything's muddled," he said, leaning closer to her as he spoke.

"The barrier between us is gone now. There is no glass anymore." Absently, he picked up a shard of crystal and twiddled it around in his fingers. Only now, he vaguely wondered what he was doing, leaning closer to her. He was able to smell her hair now, and it strangely pleased him.

"What's done is done now. I don't pity you for what you'll go through later. I'm not going to lie, you deserve it. But, when all this is over… if you're still all in one piece, I hope you'll always be smiling and happy."

 _Why did I say that?_ Armin wondered as he hovered mere inches from Annie's face.

He could smell the soup on her breath as he leaned ever closer. _What am I doing?_

Finally, he closed the space between them, kissing her very, very softly. More confused than ever, Armin calmly got up and left without looking back.

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 ** _Author's Note:_** _Ahh I didn't mean for this to turn into a shipfic. It just... sorta... became one... Ha, Armin's probably really OOC towards the end. I think I did Annie pretty well, though. This is actually my first legit romance fic, so if you're going to review, keep that in mind. Aaaand have a great day~_


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